Hi,

We've recently moved into a new house and have noticed a strange smell in
one of the bedrooms, it was present when the house was empty i.e. before we
moved in and remained despite having had the carpets cleaned. We've
(temporarily) sealed up the vent to the bricked up fire place to see if it
was coming from there, no luck. There's nothing to smell in the loft space
above the room either.

My suspicion lies with a brown stain on the ceiling directly under the
central heating expansion tank, it's old and not spreading but how feasible
is it that this could be the source of the pong. My initial impression is to
paint over it with an oil-based paint and then finish with a normal white
emulsion; assuming that this is the cause is this strategy likely to work?

Thanks

On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:39:39 -0000, "Endulini"
wrote:

Hi,

We've recently moved into a new house and have noticed a strange smell in
one of the bedrooms, it was present when the house was empty i.e. before we
moved in and remained despite having had the carpets cleaned. We've
(temporarily) sealed up the vent to the bricked up fire place to see if it
was coming from there, no luck. There's nothing to smell in the loft space
above the room either.

My suspicion lies with a brown stain on the ceiling directly under the
central heating expansion tank, it's old and not spreading but how feasible
is it that this could be the source of the pong. My initial impression is to
paint over it with an oil-based paint and then finish with a normal white
emulsion; assuming that this is the cause is this strategy likely to work?

Thanks


It took me two years to track down a bad smell in a house a few years
ago. It only ever seemed to occur on sunny bright days when I got back
from work.

Eventually the light bulb in the hallway stopped working and I went to
change it. After touching the light fitting my hand stank of the bad
smell.

I concluded that if the sun was shining into the hallway, then I
couldn't tell the light was on, and it got left on long enough to heat
the fitting until fumes came off. After changing the fitting the bad
smell disappeared, and I checked the light was off before leaving the
house.

Just a thought

Noz

Endulini wrote:

Hi,

We've recently moved into a new house and have noticed a strange smell in
one of the bedrooms, it was present when the house was empty i.e. before we
moved in and remained despite having had the carpets cleaned. We've
(temporarily) sealed up the vent to the bricked up fire place to see if it
was coming from there, no luck. There's nothing to smell in the loft space
above the room either.

My suspicion lies with a brown stain on the ceiling directly under the
central heating expansion tank, it's old and not spreading but how feasible
is it that this could be the source of the pong. My initial impression is to
paint over it with an oil-based paint and then finish with a normal white
emulsion; assuming that this is the cause is this strategy likely to work?

Thanks

Rust stains dont smell. Have you stripped the room out, ie removed
carpet and everything else? What type of floor is it?


NT

On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:39:39 -0000, "Endulini"
wrote:

Hi,

We've recently moved into a new house and have noticed a strange smell in
one of the bedrooms, it was present when the house was empty i.e. before we
moved in and remained despite having had the carpets cleaned. We've
(temporarily) sealed up the vent to the bricked up fire place to see if it
was coming from there, no luck. There's nothing to smell in the loft space
above the room either.

My suspicion lies with a brown stain on the ceiling directly under the
central heating expansion tank, it's old and not spreading but how feasible
is it that this could be the source of the pong. My initial impression is to
paint over it with an oil-based paint and then finish with a normal white
emulsion; assuming that this is the cause is this strategy likely to work?

Thanks


You cleaned the carpet? Did you look under it?
--
http://www.freedeliveryuk.co.uk

Endulini says...
Hi,

We've recently moved into a new house and have noticed a strange smell in
one of the bedrooms, it was present when the house was empty i.e. before we
moved in and remained despite having had the carpets cleaned. We've
(temporarily) sealed up the vent to the bricked up fire place to see if it
was coming from there, no luck. There's nothing to smell in the loft space
above the room either.

My suspicion lies with a brown stain on the ceiling directly under the
central heating expansion tank, it's old and not spreading but how feasible
is it that this could be the source of the pong. My initial impression is to
paint over it with an oil-based paint and then finish with a normal white
emulsion; assuming that this is the cause is this strategy likely to work?

Thanks



Could be a dead rodent under the floor? In which case the
smell will fade over a few weeks.
--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted.

Endulini wrote:
Hi,

We've recently moved into a new house and have noticed a strange smell
in one of the bedrooms, it was present when the house was empty i.e.
before we moved in and remained despite having had the carpets cleaned.
We've (temporarily) sealed up the vent to the bricked up fire place to
see if it was coming from there, no luck. There's nothing to smell in
the loft space above the room either.

My suspicion lies with a brown stain on the ceiling directly under the
central heating expansion tank, it's old and not spreading but how
feasible is it that this could be the source of the pong. My initial
impression is to paint over it with an oil-based paint and then finish
with a normal white emulsion; assuming that this is the cause is this
strategy likely to work?

Thanks


I had a bad smell that I couldn't find.

Not until long after it faded and I lifted my camera bag from a room
corner and found the dead mouse under it that the cats had brought in.

Hi all

On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:08:47 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

Endulini wrote:
Hi,

We've recently moved into a new house and have noticed a strange smell
in one of the bedrooms, it was present when the house was empty i.e.
before we moved in and remained despite having had the carpets cleaned.
We've (temporarily) sealed up the vent to the bricked up fire place to
see if it was coming from there, no luck. There's nothing to smell in
the loft space above the room either.

My suspicion lies with a brown stain on the ceiling directly under the
central heating expansion tank, it's old and not spreading but how
feasible is it that this could be the source of the pong. My initial
impression is to paint over it with an oil-based paint and then finish
with a normal white emulsion; assuming that this is the cause is this
strategy likely to work?

Thanks


I had a bad smell that I couldn't find.

Not until long after it faded and I lifted my camera bag from a room
corner and found the dead mouse under it that the cats had brought in.

Had something similar in the stained glass studio last summer.
Turned out to be a mouse that had somehow got wedged between a couple
of plastic central-heating pipes......
....was somewhat dried out by the time I finally sussed where it
was....

Adrian

Adrian says...
Hi all

On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:08:47 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

Endulini wrote:
Hi,

We've recently moved into a new house and have noticed a strange smell
in one of the bedrooms, it was present when the house was empty i.e.
before we moved in and remained despite having had the carpets cleaned.
We've (temporarily) sealed up the vent to the bricked up fire place to
see if it was coming from there, no luck. There's nothing to smell in
the loft space above the room either.

My suspicion lies with a brown stain on the ceiling directly under the
central heating expansion tank, it's old and not spreading but how
feasible is it that this could be the source of the pong. My initial
impression is to paint over it with an oil-based paint and then finish
with a normal white emulsion; assuming that this is the cause is this
strategy likely to work?

Thanks


I had a bad smell that I couldn't find.

Not until long after it faded and I lifted my camera bag from a room
corner and found the dead mouse under it that the cats had brought in.

Had something similar in the stained glass studio last summer.
Turned out to be a mouse that had somehow got wedged between a couple
of plastic central-heating pipes......
...was somewhat dried out by the time I finally sussed where it
was....

Adrian


Shortly after moving into this old French house I found
several mummified mice under and between the kitchen
cupboards when I ripped them out. Seems a daft idea to me
to leave an inch or so inaccessible gap between the floor
and the bottom of cupboards. I made replacement cabinets
with nowhere for rodents to hide and make nests. Trouble is
when you live in the countryside surrounded by grain fields
invading mice are inevitable.
--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted.

Endulini wrote:

We've recently moved into a new house and have noticed a strange smell
in one of the bedrooms, it was present when the house was empty i.e.
before we moved in and remained despite having had the carpets cleaned.
We've (temporarily) sealed up the vent to the bricked up fire place to
see if it was coming from there, no luck. There's nothing to smell in
the loft space above the room either.

Any clues as to what sort of smell?

Fishy / urine (hot thermosetting plastics)
Mould?
Damp?
Rotten Eggs?
Something else?

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article ,
John Rumm wrote:

Any clues as to what sort of smell?

Fishy / urine (hot thermosetting plastics) Mould? Damp? Rotten Eggs?
Something else?

My thoughts exactly: you don't say smells "like what".

Nothing smells like a dead thing - you can usually tell a corpse when
you're near one, though an old dead mouse will smell less than a
recently dead badger, I can tell you.

Similarly, if someone did a No.2 under the floorboards, you wouldn't be
asking us, because it'd be obvious.

Nozza's response is good: "the light bulb in the hallway stopped
working..."

Yes: overheating light fittings can smell like dead fish.

That stain sounds ominous though: try scraping the plaster away and see
what _that_ smells like?

j.

"jal" wrote in message
...
In article ,
John Rumm wrote:

Any clues as to what sort of smell?

Fishy / urine (hot thermosetting plastics) Mould? Damp? Rotten Eggs?
Something else?

My thoughts exactly: you don't say smells "like what".

Nothing smells like a dead thing - you can usually tell a corpse when
you're near one, though an old dead mouse will smell less than a
recently dead badger, I can tell you.

Similarly, if someone did a No.2 under the floorboards, you wouldn't be
asking us, because it'd be obvious.

Nozza's response is good: "the light bulb in the hallway stopped
working..."

Yes: overheating light fittings can smell like dead fish.

That stain sounds ominous though: try scraping the plaster away and see
what _that_ smells like?

j.

Cheers Guys,

The smell is a sort of sweet foody type of smell, it dissipates quite easily
if the door is left open but is a constant if it's shut and seems to
concentrate.

I'm reasonably certain it's not a dead animal or turd as it's definitely
not that sort of smell and there's no flies..... It's doesn't seem to have
got worse with time or got any better.......

The smell is a sort of sweet foody type of smell, it dissipates quite easily
if the door is left open but is a constant if it's shut and seems to
concentrate.

Sounds like an air freshener's in there. Have you asked the missus if
she's sneaked one in the room?

I know my missus would have one of those glade plug-in's in every free
socket available in the house if she could get away with it.

Jon says...
The smell is a sort of sweet foody type of smell, it dissipates quite easily
if the door is left open but is a constant if it's shut and seems to
concentrate.

Sounds like an air freshener's in there. Have you asked the missus if
she's sneaked one in the room?

I know my missus would have one of those glade plug-in's in every free
socket available in the house if she could get away with it.


Mine is banned from using them, but she still sneaks
similar things into the bathroom. I've been telling her for
years that scientists will one day discover they can cause
cancer, asthma or various other ills. Recent research
indicates that there may indeed be links. I suspect that a
few generations down the line will look in horror at some
of the chemicals we deliberately expose ourselves to on a
continuous basis - like we look back at the Victorian era
and radioactive bath salts and lead in cosmetics etc.
--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted.

In article ,
"Endulini" wrote:

The smell is a sort of sweet foody type of smell, it dissipates quite easily
if the door is left open but is a constant if it's shut and seems to
concentrate.

What is this room above? (i.e. what is below it!)

We used to get food smells in our extension bathroom. I eventually
twigged that the ceiling in our utility downstairs had small gaps around
the edges, where the plasterboard had shrunk a bit; the utility is next
to the kitchen, whence cooking smells travelled; they travelled into the
floor space via the aforementioned gaps, and thence into the bathroom
via poor sealing of the skirtings (and a ruddy great hole in the floor
behind the basin).

john

jal says...
In article ,
"Endulini" wrote:

The smell is a sort of sweet foody type of smell, it dissipates quite easily
if the door is left open but is a constant if it's shut and seems to
concentrate.

What is this room above? (i.e. what is below it!)

We used to get food smells in our extension bathroom. I eventually
twigged that the ceiling in our utility downstairs had small gaps around
the edges, where the plasterboard had shrunk a bit; the utility is next
to the kitchen, whence cooking smells travelled; they travelled into the
floor space via the aforementioned gaps, and thence into the bathroom
via poor sealing of the skirtings (and a ruddy great hole in the floor
behind the basin).

john


Shortly after moving into this old French house, I could
always smell lunch cooking while upstairs. The aroma was
very strong. One day I went into the room above the kitchen
and discovered the cause... the kitchen extractor fan
didn't vent outside as I'd assumed, it vented directly into
the room upstairs! That's the French for you. Why go to the
trouble of making a vent sized hole through an exterior
wall over two feet thick when you can just make a hole in
the ceiling and floorboards above and vent there. Duh!
--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted.